Let’s get one thing straight: customer service isn’t some fancy MBA buzzword you only encounter in corporate PowerPoint presentations. Nope. Even if you’re a lone freelancer working out of your living room, or that overworked middle manager in a cubicle, or the dude selling chaat at the railway station, you’re in the business of customer service, whether you like it or not.
And here’s where it gets hilarious (and a little tragic). After years of watching people in sales, I’ve realised there are basically two kinds of people out there:
- The “Customers Are Idiots” Brigade.
- The “Customer Is God” Cult.
Both are equally misguided.
Let’s start with the first lot—the ones who brag, usually over a cheap whiskey, that “clients are ch@#$yas.” They think their job is to extract as much money as possible before the customer realises what’s happening. This crowd thrives in high-tourist zones or anywhere they can churn and burn new suckers daily.
Ironically, these very “idiot customers” somehow keep finding their way to these sellers, like moths to a flame. They get scammed, leave a bad review, and then get scammed again by someone else. It’s like a karmic comedy on loop.
Then you have the other extreme: the “Client Is God” believers. They say yes to everything, bow down to every demand, and basically make themselves miserable in the process. This attitude usually comes from fear and a lack of self-confidence. If you’re terrified that you’ll be exposed for not knowing your craft, the easiest survival tactic is to keep nodding like a bobblehead.
But let’s be clear: the client isn’t God. The client has a need. You have a skill. Your job is to solve that need, not to worship them or fleece them. If you can’t do that basic transaction, either you’re in the wrong job or you’re dealing with the wrong clients. It’s really that simple.
Somewhere in between these extremes is a vast, neglected ocean of ordinary customers—people like you and me—who just want someone competent, honest, and reliable. No drama. No grovelling. No hidden agenda. Just clarity and some basic damn respect.
But here’s the punchline: most people aren’t actually competent enough to serve these customers. Because competence requires effort. It requires actually listening. It requires being able to say:
“Sir/Ma’am, what exactly is your problem?”
And then (drumroll)… actually solving it.
You don’t have to throw in freebies. You don’t have to fake enthusiasm. You don’t have to inflate your importance. All you have to do is be good enough to identify their problem with minimal fuss—and then fix it.
If you can do this consistently, you’ll build something magical: trust. And trust, unlike marketing gimmicks, compounds over time.
That average middle-class customer may not give you crores in revenue. But they’ll stick around for life. They’ll tell their friends. And before you know it, you’ll have a business that doesn’t require you to either scam people or worship them.
Funny how that works.
So here’s the takeaway:
Stop treating customers like idiots.
Stop treating them like gods.
Just treat them like humans with problems worth solving.
And if you can’t do that, maybe you should be in a different line of work.
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